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HAY RIVER
Mary Staszuk remembers using a mini chalkboard and an abacus in her math class, and that's something she knows her own grandchildren will probably never experience.

From left, Mary Staszuk, Nancy Makepeace, Marilyn Green and Dana Aneliunas make up the memoir writing collective that meets weekly to record their memories. - Angele Cano/NNSL photo

This is why she has decided to take up writing her memoirs, along with three other ladies who assemble weekly to do the same.

On Nov. 28, the four were pouring over binders and notepads, making notes and writing line by line, collecting all the memories that form a history.

Long-time Hay Riverite Nancy Makepeace organized the meetings last year as a way for people to share their memories with family.

Staszuk said that's why she decided to get writing.

“In my experience, young people don't ask their grandparents about their memories until it's too late,” she said. “That's the way it was with my grandparents, and I wish I had them back to ask them.”

For Marilyn Green, writing about her life is a chance to share with a family that's spread out around the world.

“Families don't grow up together as they used to,” said Green. “Sometimes you only see them a few times a year and, when we visit, it's all about catching up.”

Each participant tries to stick to an outline that they work with to organize by event, by year and by decade, allowing them to keep track of their memories.

The four members are long-time Hay River residents. Two have lived here since the mid-1970s and remember unpaved roads and rocky drives to Yellowknife.

Both Green and Staszuk originated from England, while Makepeace came from P.E.I.

One of Dana Aneliunas' earliest memories is leaving Lithuania for Montreal during the Second World War.

The group is open for more people to write along with them.

Setting aside the time, having a quiet writing space and being able to bounce ideas off each other makes all the difference, said Makepeace.

But Staszuk noted the writing is also a personal pursuit.

“It's hard to put into words,” she said. “Sometimes when you realize you're here in 2012, you ask, 'Where did the last 10 years go?' and then the 10 years before that. But as you go through your memories and fill up that time, you realize just how much happened in those decades.”

The group meets at 10:30 a.m. on Wednesdays at NWT Centennial Library.

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